Sunday, November 2, 2008

IN A NUTSHELL: Yomi's Shishi-ou has to be taken for maintenance, forcing her to fight without her ga-rei. So when she and Kagura find themselves in an underground tunnel surrounded by Category D spirits, there's nothing she can do but rely on Kagura's uncertain strength. But what happens when even Kagura is unwilling to draw her sword against the enemy?

EPISODE 04: The Duty of Justice

Kagura is in school, talking with some classmates, when she gets a call from the SDCD. Outside, Yomi and the rest of the Disposal Unit, except Nori and the twins, come to pick her up.

dis show iz gay ~

Kagura mentions that the number of evil spirits seems to have gone up. Kazuki adds its been three years since something like this happened. At this, Kagura lapses into silence. Noticing this, Yomi tries to lighten the mood by grabbing the last pocky stick from Kagura.

Yomi x Kagura is ♥ ~

The two goof around for a bit, much to Kazuki's shocked delight, until a kick from Yomi gets him to stop staring. Iwahata then joins in the fun by commenting that he finds Kazuki's butt cute.

purification action

The enemy is a Category B, Tsuchigumo. Noriyuki and the twins are already in position. Upon their arrival, Yomi wastes no time in releasing her Nue to eliminate the evil spirit. At first, Kagura complains about not being allowed to fight, but Yomi just says that she is not yet strong enough. Even so, when a portion of the evil spirit almost falls unto a hapless civilian, it is Kagura who saves her. Afterwards, Yomi, who is the only one to notice that the woman is trying to commit suicide, takes her aside and tells her to value her life more.

LMAO!

A few days later, Kagura meets the eccentric, not to mention nudist, swordsmith Michael. The man is as ridiculous and outrageous as all his weapon inventions. But he is also an acknowledged artist and a genius. He decides that Yomi's sword as well as several other weapons being used by the SDCD need maintenance, forcing the group to resort to other devices in the meantime.

Supernatural Disaster Countermeasure Division

Noriyuki assumes that Yomi would lay low for a while since without her sword, she can't use the Nue. But Yomi stubbornly refuses to take a break so Iwahata suggests some weapons for her to use. Yomi finally decides on the Douglas, which looks like a steaming iron with chains.

boys with darts

While Yomi practices with her new weapon with Kagura, Noriyuki and Kazuki have their own talk. It seems that Noriyuki is avoiding spending time with Yomi, his excuse being that Yomi seems to enjoy being with Kagura more and that he does not want to hinder that. It is revealed that Noriyuki and Yomi are arranged to be married by their families but that Noriyuki genuinely has feelings for her. Even so, Noriyuki is in no hurry to get together with Yomi, seeming to prefer to enjoy his bachelorhood while he still can. Kazuki warns him that even if that were so, he should be careful with Yomi, jokingly adding that being hated by her is scary.

girls with swords

Meanwhile, just as Yomi is finally getting the hang of the Douglas, the SDCD informs them of supernatural disaster sources near their area. She and Kagura go into a tunnel to check it out. At first, all they find are Category C spirits, which they quickly eliminate. But as more and more of these spirits appear, Yomi's Douglas runs out of reishi and she gets captured. Kagura saves her only to discover that Category D spirits have also appeared.

The White Emperor

Yomi describes them as human spirits that have turned evil. One of them is the woman they met earlier. It seems she committed suicide and now her spirit has joined the others. Knowing that they were once human, Kagura is unable to draw her spirit against them, despite Yomi's urging. Finally, as these spirits surround the two of them, a lone man appears.

Kagura recognizes her father just as he releases Byakuei and orders it to devour the evil spirits. In the midst of the fight, Yomi draws Kagura aside and tells her that Byakuei is the strongest of all ga-rei.

Later, Tsuchimiya beats Kagura's hands as punishment and reminder that as a Tsuchimiya, it is her responsibility to draw her sword against evil spirits. He leaves with the parting words: "Become strong."

COMMENTS:

OMG fanservice to the max! Not that I minded ^_^ I love these two and every moment with the two of them together is gem...because we all know how it's all going to end.

I've started reading the manga and I can see that Kagura picked up some of Yomi's personality. In Ga-Rei Zero, she's still a bit of a cry-baby and Yomi's the cool older sister type, but already, we can see evidence of Kagura's natural talent. Right now, Yomi's longer battle experience gives her an advantage over Kagura but I can see that had Yomi not turned to the dark side and increased her power through the sesshouseki, Kagura might have even surpassed her. Add to that the fact that Kagura will most certainly inherit the Byakuei, the strongest of all ga-rei, according to Yomi, then it's easy to see why Yomi eventually would see Kagura as a rival and how this supposedly harmless rivalry is twisted into consuming hate by the sesshouseki.

Oh, wow! I'm trying not to expect too much of this series, because I don't want to get disappointed. But...I am expecting a lot now. Can't help it. The manga starts typically enough, with a guy who has the ability to see ghosts having an unexpected encounter with a girl who can not only see ghosts but make it her business to exorcise them. I mean, can anybody say "Bleach?" But the anime takes a fresh approach into this rehashed storyline and makes it doubly entertaining by introducing us to main character-types only to have them all murdered in the first episode by none other than Yomi. And from there, we are taken for a joy ride through Yomi and Kagura's relationship and their eventual showdown in Episode 02 with its final culmination in the manga.

I hope Ga-Rei Zero delivers. I really, really do.

On a side note, OMG Michael is hilarious! Everything about him, from his outrageous outfit (or lack thereof) to his intonation, is psychotic!!! Whoever voices the character is a lunatic! He cracks me up! I totally LOLed when he suddenly appeared. He reminds me of Mr. Satan from Dragonball, which makes me kind of wonder if Michael is a jab at the annoyingly endearing character. Even their hairdo is the same.